The Incarnation of Christ

Sermon Transcript

Well, good morning. Will you please help me welcome all of our brave campuses that are worshiping along with us today? So great to be worshiping with all of you on this great day. Just want to give you a couple reminders. We have a winter camp for sixth through eighth grade students.

It's this January 17th through the 18th. You need to send your kids. I'm so excited about it. I'm going to be part of the weekend. I'm going to be up there speaking too.

If you're a sixth grader, seventh grader, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, you want to be there. So you can sign up. You can sign up, probably using that QR code right there. Go online and do that. We'd love to have you as our, as our guest with that.

Also, we do Christmas Eve service every single year here. All the different campuses are doing different ones. We have Christmas Eve cards for you to hand out to all your friends, neighbors, acquaintances. Because whether you realize it or not, at this time of year, people are looking for a life giving church. They're looking for answers.

We've made that easy for you to invite people to come. So. So on your way out, no matter what campus you're on today, there are cards on all the campuses you can take, you can begin to pass out. And with that, let's go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and his active word among us. Would you pray with me, Father in heaven?

We thank you for your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit who indwells all of us who believe. We pray today that Lord, through your living and active word, that you would have your way with us, that we would get a greater picture and a revelation of who you are, that we would fall more in love with you, that you would fill us more afresh with your holy spirit and that we would be set on mission to live our lives completely for you. Lord, we love you. And we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you're speaking. And so our prayer this morning, Lord, is speak for we are ready to hear.

And so now for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen. Amen. There's nothing quite like new birth. Whether you're a grandparent, whether you're a parent, whether you're a sibling, when new birth happens and Someone's brought into the family. There's a joy and excitement.

I was even thinking this week of my own kids. I had the privilege of being in the delivery room for all three of them and remember watching them take their very first breath and seeing their life and recognizing what I already knew is that there's a great God that put these children together, and I really had nothing to do with it. And here's this child, this creation of the Lord, and there's joy and celebration. It's why we celebrate people's birthdays. Today happens to be my birthday.

I don't know if you know that.

Thank you. That's kind of the response I thought I was going to get. But I want to tell you, I had very little to do with that day. I mean, when we celebrate people's birthday, we're like, hey, you came into the world. We really didn't do much with it.

Even this morning, my cell phone's blowing up with wishes and all this kind of stuff. It's a way of saying, hey, we appreciate you. We know, but we really didn't have much to do with our birthday. I don't remember that day. I have no cognitive memories of what that day was like.

And yet that's what I was told. That's what my birth certificate says. And yet every time there's life that comes into the world, we celebrate, celebrate that very life. But there's no life worth more celebrating than the life of Jesus Christ. And every single year on the church calendar, on December 25, we celebrate specifically the birth of Christ.

We should always be celebrating what his coming to this world means. But today, what I want to talk to you about in this series of the only God as we talk about Christology is last week we talked about Christ's deity, that he's always been. Today, I want to talk to you about his incarnation, that God came to us, and the significance of Christ's birth and what that means. And if you really get your head around this, which is really, really, really difficult to do, it will change the way that you view God, how you understand God, and how you think about God. So I want to invite you to the first chapter of John.

Again, I'd actually like to read, even though we're going to be in verses 14, 14 through 18, I want to read through 1 through 18 just to give you a picture, because God does the best job of telling himself, telling you about who God is. And so I just want you to hear the word of the Lord. If you have your Bibles you can follow along in John, chapter one, verses one to 18, and then we'll pick up in verses 14 through 18. Here's what he says. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him, but as many received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And here's our text for today. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testified about him and cried out, saying this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. For of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.

And here in this rich text of John, chapter one. As we learn about the deity of Jesus Christ, we also learn about his incarnation of God, becoming man of God, taking on human form of God, coming into this world. And I want to highlight five truths about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Five truths that if you understand these truths, will change your understanding of God. How you relate to God, how you view God, how you live for God, and how you share God.

And the first is this. After we talked last week about Jesus deity, that he's God, he's eternal, he's creator, he's life, he's unstoppable. The text then begins to talk about Jesus, cousin John the Baptist, who was the forerunner who preceded Jesus on the earth by Six months. Who was there proclaiming the coming of the Messiah. He himself was not the Messiah.

Jesus was. And to all who believed in him, they could have life in his name. And this is where we get into our text. It's miraculous. And that's the first term I want you to see today that the incarnation of Jesus Christ is miraculous.

I don't know what other word I can use. Perhaps awesome would be a term. There's really no English words to describe just how miraculous, spectacular, awesome this is. If there was a mic drop at any point in the New Testament or any point in biblical revelation, it would be verse 14 where it says this and the Word became flesh. Boom, mic drop.

What else can you say? There's no other religion in the world that will make the claim that God became a man. We, in our Christian traditions believe in the birth of Christ. We celebrate the birth of Christ. We have nativity scenes.

We have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. We talk about it so much that we forget just how otherworldly and supernatural and miraculous and awesome and spectacular this is. The Word became flesh. Now listen, remember when we read John chapter 11? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

It was the Logos. What is that Logos? We talked about it a little bit last week, that for Jews, it was that through which God created the cosmos. So the Logos was. We know what the Logos is.

We don't know who the Logos is, but we know what the Logos is. The Logos creates everything that we see and don't see. That's the Logos. For the Greeks, they believe the Logos was the medium through whom God created the world and communicated to his creation. We don't know who that is, but we know whoever the Logos is, is the one who created everything and then speaks to us about who he is and what he created.

And John's going to reveal who that is. He says this Word, this Logos, this being that created everything, this one that speaks to all of his creation, became flesh, became a human being. And notice what it says and dwelt among us. That's literally translated and tabernacled among us. You remember in the Old Testament, they had the tabernacle where the presence of God was.

It's the way of saying that this creator God, the one who's always existed, the one who's always been, the one who's created the world, the one who's trying to speak to his creation, has now become human flesh. God has become a man. If that doesn't blow, you Away. You're not listening.

Everyone in the world wants to. How do you know who God is? How can you see? Because God became a man. And that's the only way you can ever know God.

God came to us. God knew you couldn't get to Him. God knew you couldn't figure out Him. God gave you a conscience to realize that he's there. God created the world so you could see his majesty and beauty.

But how in the world would you ever know who God is if God didn't come and tell you? Here I am. The Word became flesh. Those three words are the biggest mic drop in the entire Bible. The Word became.

You study any other religion and any made up cult in the world and not one of them, not one of them will say God became human. He became flesh. And he dwelled among us. And we saw his glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now let's understand the Word becoming flesh.

This Logos, this Creator, this eternal God, the one who's the life giver became flesh. He became a man. I mean he, he took to himself, he arrived on the scene as. And we need to understand what we're talking about when we talk about Jesus being flesh. There's all sorts of heresies and we could talk about all of them in the history of the church, but they really center on the fact that when you don't believe Jesus is truly God and truly man, he's fully God, he's fully man.

He's both God and man all at the same time. It's heretical. You say, well, so it's not just that God took up like a body for 33 years. So he's God, but he's kind of in a body. But it's not like our body.

No, it's exactly like our body. He's fully flesh, but he's nothing like us because he's fully God. And you say how, he tells you how we saw his glory. His glory was covered by his flesh. But remember In Matthew chapter 17, this same one writing was one of the three disciples that were on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus transfigured himself.

And they saw his clothes get as white as any whiteness they had ever seen. They saw his whole glory. They, they fell to the ground. They've seen his glory, but they've seen Him. I mean, they know he's deity.

We've looked at him, we've touched him, we've felt him, we've witnessed him. He's fully God. And yet what? He's fully man. Well, which one is he?

At what time? Both. All the time. And keep this in mind. Keep this in mind.

Keep this in mind. Because for some people, they're like, well, okay, he had a body. He lived 33 years. Okay, he didn't live 33 years. He's eternal.

He's always existed. So he came to Earth for 33 years. But check this out. When he rose from the dead, he rose from the dead as what? The God man.

He didn't set aside his humanness when he ascended into heaven. How did he ascend as the God Man? He didn't get rid of his humaneness. When he returns to Earth, how is he coming back as the God Man? That's why the Bible says there is one mediator between God and man.

The man, Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ ever stopped being human, we have no connection with God. If he ever stopped being God, he's not worthy of being followed. So when Jesus Christ became incarnate flesh. Check this out.

He didn't put on flesh for 33 years. He became incarnate flesh for all eternity. Whoa. I mean, if this doesn't blow you away, nothing will. What's God like?

He's just like Jesus. He's just like Jesus. Friends, this is why the virgin birth is so important. You know, you hear theologians talk. Is the virgin birth really important?

It's not really important. It doesn't really matter that Jesus was born of a virgin. It just matters that he's a loving God and that he's what? See, the problem with flesh is when we hear the word flesh, we're not talking about sin. We were created.

We weren't created in sin. When God created us in his image as male and female, he didn't create sinful humanity. He created us as sinless humanity. Adam and Eve sinned. When they sinned, sin corrupted every part of humanity.

And then as they reproduce, they reproduce. Sinful creatures, just like your mom and dad did. Just like you did, if you have children. Right, because the sin virus passes from one generation to another. We're all born in sin.

And the wages of sin is death. The reason you die is because you're steeped in sin. However, Isaiah, chapter 7 and verse 14 says, Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son. Whoa, whoa, wait. What?

There's going to be one coming. And it's prophesied 750 years before it happens that there's going to be a virgin that's going to give birth to a child. Why does she have to be a virgin. Because if Joseph and Mary get together, then the one coming out of Mary's womb is sinful, steeped in sin. If that child is steeped in sin, that child is not God.

If that child's not God, the death on the cross means absolutely nothing because that one cannot pay for our sins. Therefore, Jesus had to be born of a virgin, was born of a virgin. Biblical revelation tells you 750 years before Christ, he would have. And even in Matthew chapter one, it goes to great lengths to tell us that Jesus was born of a virgin. One of the ways that you know that Joseph was a righteous man was this.

Notice in Matthew chapter one, after you see the whole genealogy of how Jesus came, that he's of the right line and lineage of David, like the Bible prophesied that he would. He's also God because it says so. And so was the father of. And he was the father of. And he was the father of.

And he was. Everybody's the father of everybody. However, when it gets to Jesus, that's not what it says. It says this. I'm finding that you should read this before I just turn to the page and tell you.

Let's see. And Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who was called the Messiah. It never says Joseph was the father of Jesus because biologically he never was. And it goes on to say this in verse 25, that Joseph kept Mary a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. Everybody's the father of everybody.

Who's the father of everybody? Who's the father of him? Who's the father of him? Who's the father of him? Who's the father of him?

Who was the husband of Mary who gave birth to Jesus? Why? Because Jesus father is eternal. He didn't have an earthly father. You understand what I'm saying?

Because he's the only one that was born without sin. That's why he's fully God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. And notice this. The Bible makes really clear that Joseph kept Mary a virgin until Jesus Christ was born.

She's not a perpetual virgin. Jesus had at least four brothers and two sisters that we know about through the New Testament. In Matthew, chapter 13, I believe verses 55 and 56, it talks about this just in case you're steeped in a religious tradition that tells you, oh, it was just because Mary was so awesome. Mary was definitely righteous. I mean, Jesus was the only person in history that got to pick his mom and dad.

So that's pretty cool.

But at the end of the day, notice this. Is this not the carpenter's son? Is his mother not called Mary? And his brothers, James and Joseph and Simeon and Judas and his sisters plural, are they not with us? Where did this man get all these things?

And they took offense at him. And Jesus said, but a prophet's not without honor in his own town. So he at least had two sisters and four brothers. But Jesus was born of a virgin. Now, you talk about sibling rivalry with the oldest child.

I'm an oldest child. Sometimes the oldest child thinks they're most important in the family. Like I always tell my brother, I'll always be mom's number one son, because in the birth order, I am. But imagine if your older brother was God. I mean, that's who he is.

All his other siblings came the natural way. He's sinless. He's God. Do you understand how significant this is? That when we look at Jesus and we study the New Testament and we hear revelation, we are hearing about this one who is truly God at all time and truly man at all time.

And he's both together. It's called the hypostatic union of Christ. If you go to seminary, you can't separate him. That's why we see pictures of Jesus where he weeps or he sleeps or he thirsts because he's human. And we see his divine nature, where he's healing and casting out demons and raising the.

The dead because he's God. At no time does he ever stop being God. He's always been God, and he'll always be God. But the miraculous is, is that the second person of the Trinity put on human flesh to identify with us. And it is miraculous.

Amen. I mean, it's incredible. I mean, think about Philippians chapter two here for just a minute, where it talks about the incarnation of Christ, that her attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. And in Second Corinthians, chapter two and verse six, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. It's for this reason also God highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow who are in Heaven and earth and under the earth.

And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus Christ became a man and he emptied himself. He did not consider equality with God his positional authority to be grasped, but he humbled himself in submission to His Father to go to the earth and identify with human beings. Now think about that for a second. He left heaven.

He left eternity. If you want to put that slide up of the Trinity while I'm talking here, we'll talk about this Jesus Christ we talked about last week. He is the life. He's always existed. He's God.

So he's with the Father and with the Holy Spirit from eternity past. But the Father's not the Son, the Son's not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's not the Father. They're all distinct persons, but they're all one essence, God. And you can't separate that. And yet, in the counsel of God from eternity past, the Son, Jesus Christ, the second Person of Trinity, leaves that fellowship to do what?

Become human for all eternity, so that humans have a chance of being restored to God. And if he doesn't do that, nobody gets saved. None. Not one. If Christ doesn't come to the earth, if Jesus Christ does not become incarnate flesh, there is no hope for humanity because we screwed it up in our sin.

We couldn't do it. And so Jesus Christ leaves heaven, identifies with human beings for all eternity, and always has flesh. He'll have flesh for all eternity, just like us. He'll see the scars on his hands for all eternity, just like us. Now, that may not seem like a big deal to you.

Like, okay, well, God became a human whoopity. Do listen, think about the animal kingdom for a second. They're lower than you. We're the crown of God's creation. We're created in God's image.

I mean, who in their right mind would want to put on animal flesh for a certain kind of animal for the rest of their life when you can be human like. And that wouldn't be like, a big deal going that low compared to what Jesus Christ did, leaving heaven and coming here, let alone the fact. Imagine if you had a love for, like, platypuses or something, so much that you were willing to become a platypus. Identify as a platypus, speak to platypus where a majority of the platypuses hated you and killed you. That wouldn't even be as big of a deal as what we're talking about here.

This Is God coming to man, Creator coming to the created? It is Mic Drop City. It's why when people say you can't just believe Jesus is the only way. Oh, I do. There is no other way.

He is the way, the truth and the life. You're just being dogmatic. No, I'm being biblical and thorough. There is no other way, Pastor Jeff. I know some good moral people.

No, you don't. There is no one good. No, not one compared to the glories and excellencies of our God. Do you understand what I'm saying? God came for you.

God came to identify with you. Not just talk about it, but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Amen. Wow. He emptied himself of this position to do that.

I mean, you think about just some of the things in that story that just blow me away. I mean, not much gets said about Jesus earthly father. He wasn't his biological father, clearly, but he was raised in Joseph's home. We don't know much about him, but he had to be a righteous man. I mean, he had four dreams where an angel had to show up and tell him what to do because his wife's pregnant out of wedlock, saying God put him here.

God had to show up in a dream, say she's telling the truth, Take her as your wife. When Herod was murdering all the babies, another dream. Get him out of Bethlehem. Hey. When Herod died, another dream come back to Israel, another dream, don't go to Judea, go up north.

I mean, Joseph was being led by the Lord and took great steps of faith. Mary clearly was a righteous young lady or she couldn't have done what God wanted her to do. So in God's economy, man, praise God for what they did. But understanding we're not worshiping Joseph, we're not worshiping Mary. We're not.

We're thanking God for what he was able to accomplish through them. But Joseph and Mary, as his parents, guess what they had to do? Repent of their sins and believe that their son's the Messiah. And for all of you that raised Roman Catholic, every Roman Catholic needs to understand Mary's not part of the Trinity.

She too had to repent of her sins and realize her son came to die on the cross for her sin as well. Do you understand how significant this is? And most people like to view Jesus as only human or only God in their way in which they view at different times. I'm just telling you this. I'm not telling you what to do.

Please don't write me or tell me things. You keep them to yourself. I don't watch the chosen. Do you know why I don't watch the chosen? I don't watch the chosen because I don't want to get pictures in my head of something that's unbiblical.

I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm not saying it's great. I'm just not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying I want to get my revelation from the word of God as to what God says.

And I don't want theatrical license to sway me when I'm preaching. I don't want to see other pictures that I don't know if it happened quite like that. And I understand for some it's given them a better. I'm not putting it down. I know Dallas Jenkins personally that did it.

I'm not putting. I'm just saying this is so miraculous in terms of all that God did. I don't want to get it skewed by a human view, because there's no way on picture you can make Jesus divine. You can show his humanity, but you can't demonstrate his divinity. It had to be revealed by seeing it.

And that's why I'm trusting the eyewitnesses that saw his divinity, not what's on a screen. That's what we're talking about here. John is saying this word. The one who created the cosmos, the one who's spoken into creation, the one who speaks to all human beings became flesh. And we spent time with him.

He pitched his tent among us. He tabernacled among us. We spent three years with the God man. We know he's God, and we know he's man, and he's both all the time. And it's not separate and distinct.

He's God. He's the God man. He's. And this is friends. It's miraculous.

Notice this number two. We've already begun to talk about it because he's all overlapped. Not only is the incarnation of Christ miraculous, the incarnation of Christ is unique. It's unique. John testified about him and cried out, saying this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.

We talked about this last week at great length. Jesus Christ is eternal. You remember when he said, oh, you know Abraham. Remember in John chapter 8 when they were making fun of Jesus, that, oh, you knew Abraham In John chapter 8, starting in verse 56, Jesus said, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it and was glad.

So the Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old. You've seen Abraham. And Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.

He's eternal. That's one of the requirements of being God. That's what makes us so unique. So even if there's some myth out there that I'm not aware of that talks about God became a man, they're not talking about reality. Of the eternal God who became human, who came here and died on behalf of all humanity, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, who's still the God man, who still plans on coming back and ruling and reigning on this planet.

There's no story like it. None. This is so totally unique. First Timothy one talks about the King. The.

Now to the eternal King. The eternal King. When we see Jesus, we see the eternal King. When Caiaphas tore his robe as the. As the high priest, when Jesus was saying, he goes, are you the Christ?

Are you the Christ? He's like, I am. And you will see the Son of man coming on the clouds with judgment. In other words, you think you're judging me. That's hilarious.

The next time you see me, I will be coming to judge the entire world because I'm God in the flesh. And the high priest at that point tore his robe and said, do we need any more? He's blas. He's claiming he's God. And Jesus saying, because I am, I've always been.

I will always be friends. When you're witnessing the gospel, you're not telling people about a good person named Jesus who can make your life better. Better. There's a lot of good people out there that can make your life better that aren't even Christian. I'm telling you about the God of the universe who became a man to do for you what you couldn't do, who fulfilled the law because he's God, who died on the cross and took the wrath of God because he's God, who rose from the dead because he's God, who ascended to heaven because he's God and who's coming back because he's God.

And you need to be ready to meet that God.

That's the gospel. That's why it's so unique. So unique. I mean, we see stories from the beginning with Adam and Eve, we're like, ah, why'd you eat the fruit? To King David growing and doing so great and conquering and beating Goliath and doing this, and then seeing Bathsheba and inviting her in, like, dude, what are you doing?

And we see the failure of mankind over and over and over and over and over again until after Jesus fasted 40 days and he's in the wilderness. Because now, for the first time, it's not a human versus the devil, it's the God man. And the devil tempts him three different times. And he quotes his word back to the devil and stands firm. And for the first time in biblical revelation, for the first time in human history, mankind stands against the devil's schemes.

Why? Because he's God and he's man, and he did both. He defeated him as the God man. He didn't just defeat him as God and he just didn't defeat him as he defeated him as a God man. Because why?

Because Jesus Christ is so unique, he's unlike anyone else. We don't become gods. You'll never become a God. Nobody will become a God. Even if you believe in the cultist, Jehovah Witness and Mormon, you're not becoming a God.

Jesus didn't become a God. Jesus had always been God and he put on flesh and he came and made his dwelling among us. Because only through Jesus could sin be atoned for. I mean, think about this. That's why when you read about hell and you read about heaven, both are eternal destinations where there's no crossover.

So if you've repented of your sins and trusted in Christ, effective death on the cross through his blood for your sin, you're cleansed. For what? For all eternity? If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you go to hell immediately when you breathe your last breath. And there you stay.

For how long? Forever. Why? Because no human being can pay for sin. And yet in six hours, the God man did.

The God man took on all of our sin. He was beaten, he was punished, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquity. They put nails into his hands and feet. They put a sword into his side. He breathed his last and died.

Why? Because he's God. The man on the cross, he's the God man who died. That's why there's no other sacrifice that would be worthy once and for all like Jesus was. Because he's so unique.

There's no one like him. When I hear aberrant theology of, hey, if you have the Holy Spirit and you, you're like a little God, I'm like, no, if I have the Holy Spirit, in me, I can worship my God to the fullest that I'm able to. I'm not going to heaven so I can be a God. I'm going to heaven to worship God. Amen.

That's unique. That's unique. Notice this. He said, we saw his glory. We saw his unveiled glory.

We saw Him. And John says he had a higher rank than me. This is the one I was telling you about. You remember when Mary, Jesus mother went to visit Elizabeth and Elizabeth had been six months pregnant and John the Baptist leaped in Mary's womb. When Mary got close, they were like a womb away.

Remember that? And all of a sudden, John the Baptist is doing cartwheels in the womb, which shows you a couple things. One, life starts in utero.

And God had a plan for both those that had started as embryos that came life, right? But number two, John the Baptist is born. And here's what Jesus the Christ, the God man says about John the Baptist in Luke chapter 7 and verse 28. Think about this testimony. I mean, wouldn't you love to have Jesus say this about you?

I'd love to have Jesus say this about me. And he didn't. He hasn't. But he said it about John in Luke chapter 7 and verse 28. He says this.

I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John. Now that's a pretty good testimony. I mean to walk around and say, you know, the God man says, of all those born women, nobody better than me. You know what John says about Jesus in John 1:27? It is he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

Jesus said, no one greater than John. John says, I'm not even worthy to perform the most meaningless job of a slave around that one, because he's so much greater than me. Friends, if you understand the incarnation, it will blow you away. Because you'll understand that wise men are traveling far distances to get to Jesus over a period of months to bring him gifts and worship him. And he's receiving worship from the time he's an infant.

People are at the temple waiting to see him because they want to know that he's the Messiah. You study his life. You see, there's no one that's ever been born or come into this world that claims what Jesus claims. That's done what Jesus has done. He is the God man.

He's so unique. There's no one ever been like him. There's no one who will ever be like him. And that's why we don't talk about him or decide whether we want to believe him. We bow our knee and we worship him.

Amen. He's unique. That's who our God is. And that's what John was trying to say. The one of whom Jesus spoke.

There's no one greater than John. That one said, I'm not even worthy to be a slave. I couldn't even untie the thong of his sandal. He's that much greater than me. The Incarnation is miraculous.

The Incarnation is unique. The Incarnation is also abundant. Notice what it says in verse 16. Rather, for his fullness. For of his fullness we have all received and grace upon grace through Christ, we've all received something the Bible says in James 1:17.

Every good and perfect gift comes from God and what we see in Him. He's the fullness of the deity that we talked about last Week from Colossians 2:9. The fullness of deity is in Christ. When you see Christ, you see God. When you see Christ, you see him, man.

When you see Christ, you see the God, man who's truly God and truly man all the time. It's not distinct, like, well, this is his God part, and this is part of his God brain. And this is part of his human. No, it's human and God. And you're like, how?

Because he's God. I don't know how. The Bible doesn't tell me every how. The Bible tells me enough so that I know enough so that I can bow my knee and worship Him. Amen.

He's abundant because in Christ, that's why he could say he's the way, the truth and the life. Because what he did in his life and ministry was demonstrating he was the God man, that he identified with human beings, that he loved human beings. But the crown and the pinnacle of his ministry was the death. Was his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Because only God can pay for sins.

We falsely think sometimes we can pay for our sins. Now, some of you who are believers and born again are like, I don't think that. Yes, you do. You don't think it theologically, but when you sin, you think, well, I'm just going to work harder now. I'm going to get better at this.

I'll pay for this. When you. When you sin, you're like, I'm going to hide this. I don't want anybody to see it. This is just one of my struggles.

Why? Because we still think, even though we believe that Jesus is the only way that can forgive sins. We still think there's this participation that we have. Like Jesus, you died for most of my sins, and I'm working on the others. And man, what a great team we make.

No, no, no, no, no. You didn't bring anything to the party except your sin. Jesus took the full wrath of God on the cross so that all your sin could be forgiven because you have nothing to offer but your sin. So you bring your sin and you're like, I have nothing to give you, but I want your life. And Jesus said, I'll give you my life in exchange for your sin.

You give me all your sin, I'll give you all my life, and I'll do it right now. That's what he did. That's what he does. That's why he's unique. So when I listen to banter and blah, blah, blah about new age and spiritual and know yourself and be the best version of you, it sounds like excrement to me compared to the knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ, the God man who came for me, died on the cross, shed his blood, rose from the dead, validated that he's indeed God's Son and that he fulfilled every single prophecy.

He's worth all my worship, honor, glory and praise. Give him everything. Amen. That's what he's saying, and that's how we need to view the birth of Christ. It's abundant.

Second Peter, that we were just in. And stay the course. Second Peter 1:3. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness in Christ. You have everything you need.

You have everything you need to be transformed into. You have it all. What else are you looking for? That's what the Incarnation says. Look no further.

Look no further. Jesus Christ is miraculous. He's unique. He's abundant. He's the only one you would look toward.

Let me give you a fourth. The Incarnation is transforming. Notice what he says in verse 17. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

The Law was given through Moses. The Law was good. You remember we studied the Book of Exodus, and God freed the Israelites from Egypt, got them out into the desert, part of the Red Sea, killed the Egyptian army, provided water, provided food, did everything they need, brought them to Mount Sinai, and then what? He gave them. What?

The Law. Why? God's holy, righteous standards. Is that good? Absolutely it is.

Why wouldn't we want that? From there, we get the Ten Commandments. From there, God sets up moral law and civil law and ceremonial law. There, if you're really going to love me, then live like this. Which is really good, kind of.

Because the problem is sinners can't do it. So sinners pick and choose what parts of the law they think they're better at than somebody else and focus on a couple of them while completely missing everyone else. And yet the book of James says that if you stumble at just one point of the law, you're guilty of breaking it all. And the Bible says, guess what? Me, you, we're all law breakers.

So does that make the law bad? Is the law bad? Like, oh, my goodness, the law came through Moses. That was horrible. That's not what the New Testament said.

The New Testament says, the law is good, but the law is powerless. Notice how Paul writes about this in Romans, chapter seven, starting in verse four. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our bodies to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that which we were bound so that we serve the newness of the spirit, not the oldness of the letter.

What shall we say then? I mean, here's what he's trying to say. Law is good. Because the law really does three major things for us. One, it points out the holiness of God.

When you read the law, you realize God's not like me. He's totally different than me. His expectations are so high and so righteous and so good. The second thing the law does is it points out to you, I can't live that way. Well, I keep the ten Commandments every day.

Pastor Jeff, you break every one every day. There's not one you keep. Which one do you keep? Honor your father and mother. That from the moment you came out of the womb, all you did was show them honor.

You never talked back. You never said, I'm not listening to you. You never listen. We don't even need to go any further. I mean, listen.

It points out God's holiness. It points out your utter sinfulness. But it's a tutor that starts pointing you to Jesus, like, you can't do this, but there's one who can. The God man. Did the God man died for you?

Cause you couldn't. So Paul concludes, you know, is the law bad? He's like, by no means. Verse 12. So then the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

There's nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments, Nothing wrong with the law of God. It's all good because it's saying, this is who our God is. It's good when you know that you're not God and you can't live up to a standard. And it's good to know when you start looking around, well, if that's true and I'm facing His judgment, what should I do? It points you to Jesus.

The law is nothing more than a mirror. It will show you every spot, wrinkle, blemish and sin condition that you have. When you read the Bible as law, you will see your utter sinfulness.

Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. How you doing on that?

Love your wife like Christ loved the church. Lay down your life for her. Sanctify her. How you doing on that? Wives, obey your husbands and everything.

How you doing on that? Children, obey your parents. How you doing? I mean, we can stay here all day and the law puts a mirror in your face to say, God's standards are holy, righteous and good. I'm not living them out to the full.

What do I do? And what we tend to want to do is, I'll work on it. God's gracious. He'll forgive me. Grace didn't come through Moses.

The law came through Moses. The law doesn't save one person. The law has never saved one person. So is the law bad? No.

The law is just showing you about this God who's holy, righteous and good, and you can't be. So what's the purpose of the law? To point you to Jesus. Why? Because grace and truth are revealed in him.

I mean, even when Paul writes to Timothy and he talks about the law being good, he says it's good if it's used properly. 1 Timothy 1:8 says, but we know that the law is good if one uses it properly or lawfully, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person. Say what? Not made for righteous people, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and the sinners, for the unholy and the profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers and for immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to good teaching and sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. Who's the law for lawbreakers?

The law is good because if you preach the law. And you read the law and you see the law, you'll see God's good. You're not. That's good, but it doesn't save you. But what's grace?

Grace is like soap, but it's better than soap. Grace is the cleansing blood of Jesus that cleans from the inside out, that can wash you clean when you can't change yourself and you, quote, can't get over your anger issue and you can't leave this immorality behind and you can't break that relationship off. The blood of Jesus and through his grace can do it all. And all things are possible through Him. Grace and truth came through Jesus.

Grace has the ability to save, not by your own doing. It's a gift of God, so no one should boast. Grace has the ability to sanctify. It's God's grace that teaches us to say no to ungodliness and live holy and uprighteous lives in this present age. God's grace glorifies us and allows Jesus to present us faultless before His Father.

And grace means this. It's God's unmerited favor. And you have nothing to do with it. Hmm. It's not.

I'm a pastor and I'm better than you because I'm getting better and I'm a Christian and I'm. It's God's grace that's growing me. Any good thing in me is the grace of God. I didn't do it. It's God.

And yes, as I'm worshiping Him and partnering with him, his grace can abound more in my life and grow me more. But it's not me doing the work. It's Christ in me to the hope of glory. And that's what was revealed in Jesus is grace and truth. Jesus upheld the law.

Jesus said, if anyone breaks the law or teaches others to break the law, he's lowest. Don't. Don't break the. I'm not telling you, go break the law. I'm telling you the one who's fulfilled the law has already come.

And when you watch his ministry, he's filled with grace and truth. And those are interlinked. When he meets people he never met somebody he hated, well, he hated the Pharisees. He didn't hate the Pharisees. He loved the Pharisees.

He created the Pharisees. He was willing to go to the cross and die in hopes that they would come to him. And some of the Pharisees did. Many of the priests were coming to Christ. Some of them Didn't.

They were so mean to him. He wasn't mean. Well, Jeff. He called him broods of vipers and whitewashed tombs and, you know, sons of the devil. It wasn't mean.

It was truthful. Because if they didn't hear the truth, they would stay on the course that they were on. He was so gracious and loving to tell them, you're steeped in your sin and you don't recognize God, and I'm God, and I'm standing right before you, I'm telling you the truth. And then to people that were radically broken, like the prostitute pouring oil on his feet, like the woman that was caught in adultery, like Zacchaeus, who was the white collar criminal who felt like he had no hope, what did he extend? And they were totally broken.

Did he tell them truth? Yeah. You're worse than you think you are. No, he extended grace.

Where are your accusers then? I don't accuse you either. Now I'm telling you the truth. Go and sin no more. Hey, Zacchaeus.

Come down out of that tree. I'm going to your house. Out of all the people here, you're the one I want to have fellowship with. When people get to the end of themselves, God's grace is abundant. If all you're hearing is truth, truth, truth.

And I'm so mad because every time I hear Pastor Jeb, I just get so mad. You're so mad because you're hearing about the holiness of God and you're hearing you don't measure up. But what you're not hearing is if you will humble yourself and repent that God's grace will be so abundant in your life, it will transform everything about you. His grace is transformative. You will never, ever stay the same because of the Incarnation.

I'm different now than I was a year ago. I'm different now for sure than I was 30 plus years ago. I'm different now than when I was growing up. I was thinking about this message on my drive in this morning, thinking about the ways I used to think when I was a teenager and how I grew up apart from Christ. And even my thoughts were disgusting to me.

But how couldn't they be? I didn't know Christ. I only knew me. So all my thoughts were about me. What was pleasing to me.

And any God thought I had was about what could God do for me. But once you understand that God's already done everything for me through his son, Jesus on the cross, who died for me, who rose for me, who gave life to me, who's going to present me faultless. I don't need anything else. I just need Him. Amen.

And that's where transformative power comes from. Because if you're fighting the truth of God's word, what you're really fighting is your own rebellion. That says, I still want to think that I can make God happy with who I am right now. And you can never make him happy. You can't.

Otherwise God the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world for no reason at all. It was a stupid move. And it's pretty arrogant for you to think, well, one day I'll stand in front of God and I'll tell the Father, hey, listen, everybody else needed your son, not this guy. I did pretty good on my own. I went to church, joined a small group, gave a lot.

I'm pretty awesome. You do not want to meet Jesus Christ with that pride in your life. You want to recognize that the wages of sin is death. And the biggest problem you have is your sin. And that the law came through Moses, which is wonderful, holy, righteous and good, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

And he wants to set you completely free, not through what you do, but from what he's done. Amen. That's transformative. It's transformative. Let me give you a final one here.

Not only is this transformative, but the incarnation is revealing. Notice what the Word of God says. No one has seen God at any time. Now there are revelations in the Old Testament where, you know, Joshua saw perhaps the pre incarnate Christ, where Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up. But nobody has seen God in all of his fullness.

Even when Moses said, show me your glory, God hid his eyes in the cleft of the rock and he got to see a glimpse of his glory. No one can see God and live. There's no one that's seen the fullness of God. So no one's seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father.

Notice this. The only begotten God. How are they referring to the Word of God? How are they referring to Jesus as God? He's God.

No one's seen God except Jesus. And what does it say? He has explained him. No one's seen God. No one knows God.

No one's been with God other than Jesus. And Jesus is explaining him. Why is the Word of God so true? Because if it doesn't come out of here, it didn't come from God. The revelation of who God is comes out of His Word.

That's why you must believe the Word. We're talking the Incarnation is this Word being manifest as the living Word. Who is who you're going to stand in front of. So all your great ideas. Well, here's what I think God is like.

Who cares what you think God is like? Well, I always thought it doesn't matter what you think. It matters what God has revealed. Here's who he is. He's God in three persons.

He's the Trinity. The Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Jesus died on the cross for all the sin of humanity, for anyone who would repent and believe that he's the Christ. If you get to a place of humility and realize through the law you can't measure up to God, you can't get to heaven. God's holy, I'll never make it.

And you get pointed to the cross, that in the cross you see full justice for sin, that God slays His Son and you see full love for humanity, that Jesus will lay down his life for the world. And then you see him rise from the dead, which validates that he's the only God. Because there's no human being that's ever gone into the grave and come out and continue to live for eternity. Jesus Christ is the only one. And if you repent and believe, you'll have life in his name forever.

That's the good news of the gospel. And the only way you can know that is through His Word. You can't know it apart from His Word. So I know, Pastor Jeff, that in different parts of the world, God's revealing himself in dreams. Don't you believe that?

I do. I do. People can see a vision of Jesus. And what do people do when they see a vision of Jesus? They make their way into a church and they find a Christian like, what did I just see?

And that Christian opens up their Bible, says, here's who you saw. He died for you. He rose for you. He's coming back for you. You need to repent and believe that he's a Christ.

It's the Word of God. It's the Word of God. This reveals God. If you hate this book, let me tell you something. You hate God.

You hate Him. I used to read this book when I was a new believer and I was so convicted all the time. I've told you, there's several times I'm doing devotions. I'm done with this for a while. I feel like a lousy person.

What? I didn't realize it Was God showing me truth so that I could live and think about grace and truth just for a moment. We won't get into all this here, but I mean, think about what he's revealing. Well, I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and I'm gonna work harder on the Ten Commandments. Don't waste your time.

Just don't waste your time. I'm just gonna get better at that. Don't waste your time. See, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law, the reason the Bible says you don't need the laws. Not because the law goes away and not because the law is not good, and not because the law.

Law is not appropriate. But what Jesus is saying is, I'm the fulfillment of the law. I fulfilled all of it. And if you repent and believe that I'm the Christ, I will come and live in you and all the fulfillment of the law is now fulfilled in you because of me. And when I change your heart, you will love my law and you'll love my teaching and you'll love my truth and you'll want more of my grace so that you can live the abundant life that I have for you.

Because I will change you. The Incarnation is one of the most significant truths about the Christian faith. There may be nothing more overwhelming, miraculous and powerless than to know that the Word became flesh, that God became a man and he became a man. To demonstrate what's God like? What's he like?

When you see Jesus, when you read about Jesus, that's exactly what God is like. It's exactly who God is. It's exactly what he wants. So I'm here today as a pastor. I know it's really weird sometimes in a church to say this.

I'm not asking you to join Brave Church, and I'm not even asking you to come back. I'm asking you, has there been a time in your life you've repented of your sins and believed in Jesus Christ, the God man who died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead? A simpler way of putting it is, have you ever been born again? Have you ever exchanged your sin and all of it for all of Christ's life? If not, why don't you make today that day?

Why don't you thank him for becoming incarnate flesh, the one who will always be incarnate flesh, the one who's always going to be the God man, the one who is going to come back as the God man, where you'll be able to worship him and thank him for his humility. In coming for you. Amen. Would you stand with me? Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, all the praise and all the honor for who you are.

And Lord, we pause here for a moment this morning because even if there's just one in this room that would say, I don't know that I've ever trusted Jesus Christ the God man to forgive all my sins, I don't know if I've ever really believed he died for me and rose. And I want today to make sure my life is right. Here's how you can pray. Lord Jesus, I believe you're the God man. I believe you came to this world.

I believe you died on the cross for my sins and that you rose from the dead. And here's what I'm asking now. Lord, take all my sin that you paid for at the cross and give me all your life. I confess you as my Lord and Savior. Father, for those of us who know you, let us be reminded as to how great the incarnation is, how wonderful you are, how marvelous you are.

Let us worship you now and look forward to worshiping you all the days of our life. We give you all the glory, honor and praise. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen and Amen. Can we give God praise this morning for his word?